Suzanne Aubert: Difference between revisions

Suzanne Aubert
File:Suzanne aubert profile picture.png
Born	19 June 1835 St Symphorien-de-Lay, France
Died	1 October 1926

Suzanne Aubert (19 June 1835 – 1 October 1926), better known to many by her name of Sister Mary Joseph or Mother Aubert, was a Catholic sister who started a home for orphans and the under-privileged in Jerusalem, New Zealand on the Whanganui River in 1885. She first came to New Zealand in 1860 and formed Congregation of the Holy Family to educate Maori children. She founded a religious order, the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion in 1892. She later started two hospitals in Wellington; the first, St Joseph's Home for Incurables in 1900, and Our Lady's Home of Compassion in 1907.

She devoted her life to helping others. Her work took her from France to Auckland then to Hawke’s Bay, to the Whanganui River and finally to Wellington. Along the way, she founded a new Catholic congregation, cared for children and the sick, by skilfully combining Māori medicine and Pākehā science, and wrote books in Māori, English and French adding significantly to our cultural understanding and literary heritage.

She was actively engaged with the local Māori population and spoke Māori well. She wrote a book New and complete manual of Maori conversation : containing phrases and dialogues on a variety of useful and interesting topics : together with a few general rules of grammar : and a comprehensive vocabulary which was published in Wellington by Lyon and Blair in 1885.

The process for Suzanne Aubert's canonisation as a saint was commenced with the appointment in 2010 of Maurice Carmody as postulator or advocate for that cause.

History

Through her life, she was undeterred by obstacles of lack of resources, and stood firm believing that everyone deserved equal respect. When already in her eighties, she travelled to Rome where she gained permission to continue working for those who most needed her help – children and the sick. Determined and charismatic, Suzanne Aubert had the knack of making things happen, and remained steadfast in her belief in herself, the people she served and her God.

1835 - 1840: The Early Years

Marie Henriette Suzanne Aubert, known as Suzanne Aubert was born at St Symphorien-de-Lay a small village not far from Lyon . Suzanne’s mother Clarice worked for Church welfare organisations and her father, Louis was a huissier. She had three brothers –Alphonse, Louis and Camille – and the family was middle class and respectable .

When Suzanne was about two years old, she fell through the icy surface of a pond onto rocks below and became temporarily crippled and blind. Because of this and the premature death of her disabled brother Louis, she developed an enduring empathy for people with disabilities .

Suzanne recovered the use of her limbs and most of her eyesight but was left with a cast in one eye. Shortly after her mother Clarice was diagnosed with cancer and in 1845 was cured by a miracle at the shrine of Fourvière.

Although her childhood illness slowed her education, Suzanne quickly made up lost ground at boarding school under the care of the Benedictine nuns of La Rochette. She went on to study music, fine arts, needlework, languages and literature, she was an exceptional reader and read classical and devotional books. She later taught herself Spanish in order to read the writings of St. Teresa of Avila in the original text. Suzanne also learned cooking and household skills at home.

1850 - 1860: Missionary Calling

Following 19th century French custom among middle-class and upper-class families, Suzanne parents had arranged her marriage to the son of a family friend.

When she grew up, however, Suzanne refused to comply. Clarice sought the support of the much-respected Jean- Marie- Baptiste Vianney, parish priest of Ars and later St Jean Vianney, who instead told Suzanne that she had made the right decision. God had other designs for her, he said. It was the encouragement she needed.

In 1859 Bishop Pompallier, visited his home town Lyon to recruit missionaries for his Auckland diocese and Suzanne accepted the invitation . Suzanne set sail from France for New Zealand on 4 September 1860. On board the wailing boat were 23 missionaries for New Zealand including three other Frenchwomen, Bishop Pompallier’s niece Lucie Pompallier, Antoinette Deloncle and Pauline Droguet.

1860 - 1871: Arrival in Auckland

Suzanne had expected to be affiliated with the Third Order of Mary in Sydney. Instead the ship sailed on to Auckland and the four Frenchwomen joined the English-speaking Sisters of Mercy.

The French sisters wanted to help indigenous people and not, as expected, teach French, singing, sewing and embroidery to the daughters of wealthy Aucklanders. As a result they were transferred to the Nazareth Institute for Māori girls. In 1862 they formed a new religious congregation in Freeman’s Bay named ‘The Holy Family’, under the jurisdiction of Bishop Pompallier, which was responsible for the teaching of Māori girls. Here, Suzanne, now Sister Mary Joseph, became affectionately known by Māori as ‘Meri’.

Suzanne’s mentor in all things Māori was Hoki, known also as Peata, an influential and gifted relative of the powerful Ngapuhi chief, Rewa. She had been baptised by Bishop Pompallier in 1840, shortly before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, and became a Sister of the holy family.

In 1868 Bishop Pompallier travelled to Europe with his niece, officially to seek support. His diocese was in total financial collapse and low on staff numbers. He never returned and died in Paris in 1871.

Suzanne and Peata, who was struggling to maintain her eyesight, continued caring for their family of girls and rallying limited support from lay and non-catholic Aucklanders, and from northern Māori communities. Thomas Croke, the newly appointed Bishop of Auckland, opposed their work.

In 1871 Suzanne, unwilling to give up and return to France, left Auckland to live and work at the Marist Māori mission station at Meanee in Hawke’s Bay with Father Euloge Reignier. Her Māori pupils went back to their Kainga, or villages, and Peata, now blind, returned home to northland and died not long after.

1871 - 1883: Hawkes Bay

Suzanne Aubert, now 35 years old and no longer a member of a religious congregation arrived in Hawkes Bay to play her own part in the revitalisation of the Catholic Māori mission.

Suzanne settled into the French household, helped on the farm, taught catechism, trained the local choir, played the harmonium, embroidered and prepared the church for religious festivals, and soon became well known for her skilful nursing.

Suzanne became well known to Māori and Pākehā. Catholic and non-Catholic communities as she moved around the district ministering to her people.

Suzanne pinned her hopes for a revival of the Māori mission on Bishop Redwood who succeeded Bishop Viard as Bishop of Wellington in 1874 and became her lifelong supporter.

In anticipation of the arrival of more priests she began revising and enlarging the 1847 Māori prayer book, compiling an English-Māori dictionary and producing a French-Māori phrase book (which she followed up in 1885 with a groundbreaking Māori English phrase book)

In 1879 Father Christophe Soulas arrived from France, familiarised himself with Māori families in the district and constructed a new church at Pakipaki.

Three years later, Māori from Whanganui River area on a trading trip asked Archbishop Redwood for a priest for their area. In 1883 Father Soulas and Suzanne Aubert left Hawkes Bay to go to Hiruharama, or Jerusalem, 60 kilometres up the Whanganui River.

1883 - 1899: Hiruharama-Jerusalem

In 1883 Father Soulas, Suzanne, as interpreter and Māori cultural adviser, two young Australian Sisters of St Joseph, Sisters Aloysious and Teresa from Whanganui, who were to teach in the school, and their superior Mother Hyacinth arrived in Hiruharama to revive the Catholic Mission.

Suzanne taught the Sisters Māori language and customs and many children and adults came to the school, and became devout converts. In May 1884 and despite having impressed the locals with their dedication, the Sisters of St. Joseph decided to leave Jerusalem. Suzanne was asked to lead and establish a branch of the Marist Third Order Regular of Mary. She recruited more teachers. Anne O’Rourke, Bridget Brownlie and Carmel Gallagher joined her in 1884 and became Sisters shortly after.

The Sisters at Hiruharama, in addition to the usual customs of religious life, taught and nursed, farmed newly-cleared bush, tended an orchard, made and marketed medicines, sold fruit to tourists and raised homeless children. The community grew and thrived.

1899 - 1913: Wellington

In 1899 Suzanne and two sisters arrived unannounced in Wellington and quickly set to work . The much-needed home they planned for permanently disabled people would require trained nurses so the Sisters of Compassion completed a St. John Ambulance Association course. Doctors took a personal interest in the training of the Sisters, and people of all creeds and none were welcome.

The Sisters set up a soup kitchen-still operating today and in 1903 established a crèche for the children of working parents . Suzanne and the sisters, pushing wicker collecting prams, begging food and cast-off clothing for distribution to the needy became a familiar part of the city’s daily life.

In 1907 the impressive Home of Compassion was opened, initially for the care of children and babies.

In 1910 a home for babies was opened in Auckland. Unfortunately for Suzanne, the unconditional admiration that the people of Wellington had shown for her work was not shared by some of the hierarchy. Problems surfaced.

The Society of Mary in France, however, was not happy with the direction the Hiruharama community had taken. Archbishop Redwood intervened and with Suzanne Aubert established the first Religious Congregation in New Zealand.

1913 - 1920: Rome

Unable to carry out her plans, Suzanne travelled to Rome to enlist the support she required. She hoped to be granted the Decree of Praise which would ultimately give her order independence from the church in New Zealand.

On April 1917-four years and four months after Suzanne arrived in Rome-Pope Benedict granted the Decree of Praise to the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion. It was the only Catholic congregation born and growing to maturity in New Zealand, and the smallest congregation in the world ever to have attained this status.

1920 - 1926: Wellington

Back in Wellington Suzanne wanted to ensure continuing security for the Sisters and to provide general hospital treatment and trained nursing free of charge to the poor of New Zealand’s post-war depression.

She arranged for extensive alterations to the Home to provide a complete surgical section, including an operating theatre and wards. In 1922 the sisters began training for the surgical work the new hospital would provide.

In the afternoon of 1st October 1926, aged 91, Suzanne Aubert died. New Zealand’s newspapers spread the word and crowds gathered to pay their last respects. Her funeral was widely reported to be the greatest funeral ever accorded a women in New Zealand.

beatification process

In 2010 Father Maurice Carmody was appointed postulator (i.e. the person who prepares and pleads the case) for the process of the beatification of Suzanne Aubert, which is currently before the authorities in Rome.

File:Suzanne Aubert Sitting in a chair 1925.jpg

Sources

• Jessie Munro, The Story of Suzanne Aubert, Auckland University Press, Auckland 1996.
• Jessie Munro (ed) (with the assistance of Sister Bernadette Wrack), Letters on the Go: The Correspondence of Suzanne Aubert, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2009.
• Documentary : "The Story of Suzanne Aubert" by Chantal Perrin with the contribution of Sr Bernadette Mary Wrack, Sr Josephine Gorman and Jessie Monroe. France 2/KTO/RFO 2006

External links

• Objects relating to Mother Aubert from the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
• Mary Joseph Aubert biography from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography